Chapter Text
“Claire? Is that you?”
“Claaaaaaaaaaire”
Huh.
I was being stared at by a young girl sitting at her desk, who was seemingly calling out my name.
“Oh um.” I started flatly while feeling very groggy, as if I had just woken up despite me clearly standing. “Yes, hello.”
The girl looked equally dazed and started looking at her surroundings. Now that I had a chance to focus, it seems like I was back in the Royal Academy, but the uniforms looked slightly different than how I remembered. It was the same color palette as what I knew, but the style of clothing was slightly different. I also don’t remember this girl from Light Magic and the Hero, but it all looked very familiar to me. I just could not place my finger on it. The girl’s hair was short, it only went down to about the end of neck, hair and eyes were a deep black just like mine.
Or so I thought, until I noticed bits of blonde hair in my peripheral vision.
Huh, that’s not right.
However, now that feeling of familiarity is killing me even more, I should know what’s going on and I feel like I’ll facepalm from how obvious it was once I’m able to solve this feeling.
“Miss Claire?” The familiar, black haired girl called out to me again, shaking me out of my frozen stupor. “Do you remember my name?”
“Oh...I think I recognize you…your family name is Taylor, yes?”
Yes that was where I am at, the classroom in a different otome game that I played a few times, Revolution. It was a very similar game to Light Magic and Hero (HikaYuu for short), but I didn’t quite like it as much given it had a much higher focus on romance than the rpg battling that HikaYuu had. The girl in front of me was the protagonist of Revolution, a commoner who was able to be let into the Bauer Royal Academy because of the king’s new meritocratic policies as a talented student on a scholarship. The protagonist’s first name is something the player decides so I couldn’t really tell her what her name was. At least her family name was always set to Taylor, so I had that to go off of.
There was a problem however that I have now noticed, Claire is not my name, and I do not have blonde hair. My name is Yumiella and my hair was black like Taylor’s.
Ah, I’ve figured out what’s happening.
It seems I was reincarnated as the villainess and rival of the game, Claire Francois.
Once again a villainess.
sigh
What an odd dream this is.
“Miss Claire!” Taylor suddenly stood up from her seat, with a seemingly newfound energy after I answered her inquiry. I never could have predicted her next words.
“I like you”
“Huh?”
“Miss Claire, I love you.”
Huh, I didn’t expect Taylor to be so friendly immediately, that is a nice change of pace. I love Alicia but we did not start on the right foot when we first met. Still, strangers being overly friendly with me was not something I was that comfortable with.
“It’s good to meet you too, Taylor.” I returned the kindness as best I could while feeling a little unnerved by Taylor’s forwardness. “However, we did just meet. I would like it if we could be a little more distant.”
“Oooh but Miss Claire, you’re so cute that I just couldn’t help but fall in love”
“ Wh..wh -what?!” I became completely nonplussed. It seems that Taylor was talking about something much deeper than what I was thinking.
This isn’t right either. Revolution never had a gay route or anything like that, so to hear Taylor say this about not only another woman, but also her noble rival, really threw me for a loop. I suppose that this is further proof that this is a dream, Alicia’s influence was affecting my sleep as well.
“I-I see, well I-” I slowly recovered from the shock but had to stop my words in my tracks before admitting that I was already married to another. While I do have no interest in acting like Claire Francois, I didn’t want to derail things like that by saying something that Claire herself could not have accomplished. I then reflexively employed my tactic from my HikaYuu academy days. “I’m only interested in those who are stronger than me.”
Taylor’s eyes began to go wide.
“Oooooooooh?” Taylor had a smug look on her face. “So you’re saying when I defeat you in combat, you’ll marry me?”
“That’s not happ-” I began to counter until I realized something that I did not think about until now, I was back to level 1 here. Well, Revolution didn’t have a leveling system so that was not quite accurate, but I was certainly not the level 100+ monster that I would normally be. Given that this is the body of Claire Francois, I would have fire magic instead of the dark magic I’m much more familiar with as well.
So in essence
I really should not have said that
“Well-I mean…I only said I would be interested.” I flustered, trying to backpedal my mistake. “I never said that I would accept your proposal.”
“Awww.” Taylor slumped back into her chair. “But still, you’re so cute.”
“I don’t understand what I did to earn this affection.”
The commoner giggled a little bit
“Miss Claire, you hate me, right?”
Her latest question only deepened my confusion. I don’t think I have done anything that would come across as hateful I think?
I hope.
“N-no, Miss Taylor.” I regain my composure to politely correct her, perhaps a little too politely given our statuses. “I just don’t……understand you”
“That’s fine!” she beamed. “All I need is to be in your presence.”
“Let’s get this super-fun school life started, Miss Claire!” she exclaimed as she pumped her fist into the air.
What an exhausting dream.
The dream had kept going from there as I had to participate in the game’s classes. Thankfully it was the first day of the semester, so I was able to cruise through it with my game knowledge from another life. I may not be as much of a fanatic for this game as I am for HikaYuu, but I still 100%’ed Revolution, so I have a good amount of academic knowledge.
-!-
“What is with that commoner?”
“She’s insane! How dare she speak that way to a noble such as yourself, Miss Claire.”
I was joined by two of Claire’s friends, Pepi Bariler and Loretta Kugret, for lunch. The former had pink hair that went a little down past her shoulders, while the latter had a boyish appearance with her short black hair. These two may have also been in the game, but they were minor npcs, so their names and faces were not in game. This means I had no idea what they looked like or what their names were. Luckily, they made it pretty clear they were my friends with how quickly they would defend me from the commoner, whose full name I have learned by now is Rae Taylor. The issue with the names was also resolved rather quickly when paying attention to the roll call in the classes that I thankfully shared with them.
“While I appreciate your help with dealing with her, I feel that may be a bit much.” The two of them have been able to back me up today against Rae’s constant verbal advances, something I really do not have the strength in me to deal with right now. I’ve been having an awful headache.
“But she has been making a complete mockery of you!”
“Yeah! She has absolutely no sense of manners”
Okay well that second statement was true.
“Well I’m sure I can just teach the commoner on how to properly address a noble.” I suggested. If I had to deal with this girl in future days, which seemed like it would be a constant, I would like to befriend the protagonist to avoid my death in a bad ending.
“But isn’t that playing into her hands?!” Loretta objected.
“Maybe, but it’s not as if I want to be on bad terms with her. I think we just started on the wrong foot, in a very odd way in this case, but I believe that we can be friends”
“But why are you interested in befriending a commoner?”
“Yeah why her?!” Pepi and Loretta stared at me in confusion, Loretta for some reason looks especially hurt by my desire to befriend the commoner.
“Well Rae isn’t just any commoner, she’s a commoner that was able to enroll in the Royal Academy. Even with His Majesty’s new policies, the commoners that were enrolled here would be those who show extremely promisable talent. Rae in particular happens to be at the top of her class as well, she shows promise to be a very reliable friend in the coming days.” I explained my thought process to my friends. While it wasn’t the real reason why I wish to befriend Rae, even if I didn’t have my game knowledge, it only makes logical sense after seeing how much of a prodigy she is.
The two of them didn’t seem fully convinced by my explanation, but I can see the two of them back down, understanding the logic behind my actions.
“By the way, Miss Claire?” Pepi spoke up after a small silence
“Hmm?”
“Is there something else bothering you?” Pepi made a concerned face at me. “You have had a very…blank expression and mannerisms all day. I know you said that the commoner wasn’t deeply bothering you, but I’ve never seen you like this before so I’m getting quite worried about you.”
Oh has it been that obvious? Hmm, I was hoping that at least I would be able to fool everyone while also being a bit more passive in personality, but if I’m still as expressionless as I am in real life, then I suppose there’s nothing to be done. I suppose I’ll have to give them a half truth of an excuse for now.
“Oh I see, I’m deeply sorry to you two. I’ve had a pretty bad headache since we started classes today.” I put my hand to my head to further my point. It wasn’t necessarily wrong, I’ve been feeling a terrible headache all day, but I think I can attribute that more to having to remember a whole world of information again in a place of dubious lucidity. It was a good cover, however.
“That’s awful!” Loretta exclaimed. “Why didn’t you tell us sooner!!”
“I did not think it was anything worth mentioning. It’s not that bad, it has just been making me feel a little off today”
“Well let’s hope it clears over by tomorrow!”
“Yeah, and you can tell us if something is bothering you!”
“Thank you, girls. I also hope this blasted headache subsides soon. I’m glad that I have friends like you” I could tell that my expression didn’t change much, but I believe that I was able to soothe the girls’ worries. I didn’t really know them before but they seem like good people at heart, which is nice.
Lunch was over by then and I had to return to dealing with Rae’s advances. I partnered up with Rae during P.E and she squealed something like, “Oh so forward Miss Claire, first we’re partners in P.E, and soon we’ll be partners in love”.
Truly a confounding individual.
I felt relieved that the classes were over for the day. Having to adapt on the fly like this compared to being prepared to deal with this new world stuff for a decade like I did in HikaYuu was much more of a pain. Usually I would head out for some monster hunting, but even if I could pull that off without arousing suspicions from my peers, I really didn’t have the energy for it this time.
As I walked outside to my dorm, I saw a young woman with long, brown hair in a maid outfit waiting outside. That must be Lene, Claire’s personal maid and her closest friend. She’s been serving Claire since Claire was four. Given that, I wasn’t exactly enthused as I’m sure she’ll see something wrong with me if Pepi and Loretta were able to.
“Good evening, Master Claire.” Lene greeted me as I got closer. “How was your first day of classes?”
“Fine.” Aside from the whole Rae situation, nothing really noteworthy happened, nothing really went wrong so I consider that a win in my circumstance.
There was a bit of a stunned silence from Lene at my answer.
“...fine?”
“Yea?”
“...is that all?”
“Yes….???” I began to trail off questioningly. I guess I really do seem like a different person to her now. Well, that’s because I am, but I digress. “Is there something wrong, Lene?”
Lene’s face appeared puzzled for a few seconds, as if she herself was trying to figure out how to word her current feelings. After a small silence, she spoke up.
“It seems like you have become less…enthusiastic since I last spoke to you this morning. You were very excited this morning to finally be able to attend the royal academy, being given a chance to follow in your mother and father’s footsteps.”
Oh.
All my thoughts and focus had stopped when Lene had mentioned Claire’s parents. Of course, she may be a villainess, but, unlike me, she actually has parents in her life. Even if her mother was only around for her first five years, her impacts on Claire last even now given she’s the whole reason why she has her iconic drill hair. There’s even mentions in game that amount to saying that she’s a daddy’s girl, so she has a good relationship with her father too, despite everything. Which all in all, is the complete opposite of me, someone who has never given much thought to her parents, given that the second time her parents even looked at her was when she was level 99 and had to stare her parents down to stop them from trying to assassinate her. The parents in her first life at least never tried to kill her, but they never really gave much thought to her either, she felt the same about her parents in her first life, so she didn’t take any offense to it.
But now I was in the life of someone who actually has parental figures. There’s no way I can fake being someone’s daughter. I just have to hope that it nev-
“MASTER CLAIRE”
“AAAAAAH” I yelp after basically being shaken and yelled at by my maid. Goodness, I must have been really deep in thought for it to get that bad, or maybe it’s just the slight stress of everything making things worse.
“Oh thank the spirits.” Lene let me go and breathed a relieved sigh. “You weren’t reacting at all to me. I was worried that you had fainted somehow.”
“That bad, huh?” I dryly tried to laugh it off, but Lene simply furrowed her brow in response. I have to apologize. “I’m sorry, Lene. I’ll be better tomorrow, I’m just having an off day right now.”
“I understand.” Lene let out a heavy sigh but didn’t say anything else on the matter. “It’s getting late, we’ll need to head back to your dorms”
Lene was right, it looked like it was about to dusk soon. I don’t remember if this school enforces a curfew but I did not want to find out the hard way.
“So it would seem, lead the way.” I gestured…well about halfway through the motion I actually realized that the game never mentioned anything about where Claire’s dorm room was so I just held my arm up forward in front of me for a second before putting back down, not actually knowing where or what direction it was in. The whole thing felt wildly embarrassing, I turned my face away from Lene for a few seconds. I hoped that the exchange had amused Lene enough that she wouldn’t press on it. Hearing a muffled giggle gave a small hope that something was going right for me today.
However it wouldn’t last long as we just stood there awkwardly for several seconds.
Why?
She said that she saw me out this morning, right? Did I make an assumption on that part? Did she leave from her estate here first to the academy with Lene? But in that case wouldn’t she be the one to organi-
“So it’s like I thought.” Lene cleared her throat, which had interrupted my spiraling. I guess that was a test, then? Well there was no way I was gonna pass it then, haha.
However, Lene then said something that send a chill down my spine
“Who are you?” she stared me down directly with her hazel eyes. It terrified me. I know it’s odd saying this when I’ve killed monsters way bigger than her, the demon lord, and even an alt universe version of myself, but I knew they weren’t good people (when I fought them at least, anyways). Lene is different, she’s a maid that’s just worried for her master that I would have basically killed if this was real life.
I couldn’t hide the truth from her, it was impossible. I had to tell Lene basically as much as the truth as she could believe it.
“I have amnesia,” I told her firmly. Lene seemed quite surprised, and then gave me a skeptical but much less suspicious look. “I still have a bunch of memories, but a lot of them are missing and my feelings are a bit...disjointed.”
I then said something that I felt was about as close as I could get to the truth without revealing everything
“I feel like when I go back to my memories now, I just see them not as memories of myself but of someone who’s watching them like a theater performance. The actors are just people that are around me.”
It seems like this explanation softened Lene’s gaze into something that was more akin to sympathy than before. Clearly she was still confused, but I think she can tell that I’m just as confused as she is. She then pulls me in for a hug, I’m a bit surprised but when I regain my composure slightly, I’m able to give one back.
“I suppose I must lead you to your dorm room, Master Claire.” Lene broke out of the hug “I do want to know what you are able to remember”
I give Lene a light nod in response as she leads me to my dorm room.
Lene takes me to the girl’s dorm and leads me up to my room
“Excuse me.” Lene addresses before grabbing the handle and opening the door. The room was similar to dorm rooms I attended in my Japanese life, except it was all less modern. It was a double sized room with two desks and a bunk bed for two. I looked around a bit more as the two of us entered the room, and it seemed like it was just the two of us. Which was very odd considering that everyone in the Royal Academy were assigned double rooms, regardless of family or financial status. This means that Claire should also have a roommate too, but it’s occurring to me that the game never mentioned Claire having a roommate so mayb-
“I know you’re shy Miss Catherine, but something important has come up that I need the both of you to be present for.” I was startled out of my thoughts by Lene speaking up. I turned around and saw that I missed the sound of her closing the door behind her earlier.
Wait
Who’s Catherine?
I wildly looked around the room to find who Lene was talking to when my heart jumped seeing a girl with wavy, light blond hair about my age seemingly materialize out of thin air laying on top bunk of the bed already in her bedwear, looking directly at me and Lene. Without thinking I took a step back after making an involuntary yelp..
“Claire? Did something happen?” My sudden actions caused my roommate(?) to be looking increasingly concerned.
I recovered myself from my shock and prepared myself to give Catherine the same explanation I gave to Lene.
“Well, a lot has happened today. However, most importantly of all is that I seem to have gotten amnesia. I do remember my academics and a few people in my life, but I think a majority of my memory is hazy.”
Catherine stared intently at me for a few seconds before shifting herself off the bed. It was then I noticed that Catherine only had one leg.
“Can you come a bit closer?” Catherine requested me as she finally settled on the bottom bunk bed. I nodded and started to dart forward to Catherine. “Can you hand me my wand? It’s on my desk.“
I reached over to her desk and found the wand she was talking about and handed it to her. She started pointing it at me. I was a little nervous with a magic wand down my face, but I figured it would be fine in the end. Catherine started to concentrate and looked as though she casted a spell. She then stared at me, looking as if she was expecting a reaction out of me.
“Uh…what was that?”
“So this isn’t the work of memory magic.” Catherine sighed.
“Huh? Memory magic?”
“My speciality is memory magic. It can be used to manipulate memories of people, such as making myself invisible to you and Lene here by erasing myself from you seeing me. I tried to cast a spell on you that would reverse any of that magic on you if you were being affected by it, but it seems like that’s not the case”
“Memory Magic? What element is that?” There was never anything like that in Revolution as far as I knew. I’m starting to have a very bad feeling right now.
“It’s wind magic”
“Huh, well that’s very interesting.” I simply remarked. “Well this has been a very eventful dream, but it’s about time I go back to real life right now.”
“A dream..?” Lene spoke up from behind
I ignored the confused looks of both girls as I commenced all my techniques to get myself out of a nightmare, making sudden movements to shake my body up from the bed I’m sure I was sleeping in.
Except none of them were working…
Uh oh.
In a last ditch effort I did the classic cliche of pinching my nose, but I knew that would be in vain.
Oh no.
This is not a dream. This is my reality now. Stuck in a land a world apart from my home once again. But this time it was even worse. I know the first time I was transported, no one cared about me. This time however, I had a family, and a group of friends that I really cared about and who loved me back too. And what’s more, I’m replacing a 15 year old girl who had plenty of loved ones already before I replaced her.
I’m essentially a murde-
“Claire!” I got interrupted from my spiraling by a hug from Catherine. I also got a hug from behind from Lene. It was then I noticed that I was shaking, bad. I also noticed that I was crying. I don’t know what is going to happen now that I’m here in this world, but I’m very glad that I can have these two with me.
The three of us stood there like that for a whole, letting me sob out all my tears. After I had calmed down a bit, Lene and I sat down on the floor across from Catherine, who was sitting on the bottom bunk bed. I had told them that I had something to tell them and it would be a long story, so we were going to be here for a while.
“I want to make this clear first.” I took a deep breath and paused before I said this next sentence. Because it would forever change how they would look at me. “I am not Claire Francois”
Catherine looked completely shocked at this, while Lene’s expression was unreadable, just staring intently at me.
“Wh-what?” Catherine was flummoxed.
“I’ll explain everything.” I tried to reassure her. “But both of you, please be quiet until I’m done.”
The two girls nodded.
So I began to regale my tale.
“I was born originally in the country of Japan. A country that is hundreds of years more advanced in civilization than Bauer in every respect. I died in Japan because of an accident with a high speed carriage running me over. I then woke up in a book story that I was extremely familiar with, Light Magic and the Hero, HikaYuu for short. I woke up in the body of a five year old noble named Yumiella Dorkness, the villainess rival of HikaYuu. She was a character who would bully the protagonist of the story, Alicia Ehnleit, the sole commoner invited to the Royal Academy, when the both of them enroll in the Royal Academy.”
“Yumiella is eventually killed at the end of the story by the protagonist and her three companions that she befriends throughout the story. Deciding that I did not want to deal with any of that, I decided to not worry about any of that and go do what I like to do best, hunting monsters in order to become stronger. In the world of HikaYuu, there are measurements of one’s strength called “Levels”, and you can increase your strength by increasing your level, which can only be done by slaying monsters. With the knowledge I had of HikaYuu from my Japanese life, I was able to level up to the maximum possible level, 99, before attending the Royal Academy.”
“When people found out about this, many people thought that I was a demon, or the lord of all demons. There are also two other factors that lead to people believing this. I had both the very rare magical element of dark magic, as well as black hair, traits that had a strong stigma to them because of the original demon lord having them. This caused a lot of trouble in my school life but eventually I was able to graduate and survive after defeating a revived demon lord.”
“It was after that I would date and soon marry the love of my life, Alicia Ehnleit .”
Catherine and Lene were mostly quiet during my explanation and were nodding along as I explained my past. However, when I said that I married a woman, they both had a flash of surprise on both of their faces.
“So…are you gay?” Catherine hesitantly asked.
“I am.” I answered instantly. “I hope that doesn’t negatively affect how you see me.”
I would be in hot water if it did.
“Nonononono.” Catherine violently shook her head and hands. “It’s completely fine if you are. It’s just…”
Even I could tell that Catherine was choosing her next words extremely carefully.
“It’s weird seeing someone who looks and sounds exactly like my closest friend talk as a very different person.”
“That’s understandable.” It can’t be easy to be in front of someone who took their closest friend away from her.
Unintentionally or not, I killed her best friend.
“That’s why I must tell you that I am deeply sorry to the both of you.”
“Huh?”
“Pardon?”
“Even if I had zero intention to wake up in this body, I did something unacceptable and killed your friend.”
The girls then both gave me a look before looking at each and then to me. I guess they haven’t forgiven me. Ah well, I suppose I do deserve punishment for mur-
Thwack
“Ah!” I yelped in pain as I got flicked in the head by Catherine’s finger.
“Jeeeez, that is not something you have to punish yourself over. This is clearly not your fault.” Catherine pouted.
“Huh?”
“Just to be clear, do you know how you got here?” Lene inquired.
I just gave a shrug.
“I don’t know, one moment I was sleeping with my wife and the next I was sitting down in the Bauer Royal Academy classroom.”
“Then this is something that you don’t need to apologize for.” Lene gripped my shoulder. “I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t crushed that Master Claire is gone. However, I can tell that you’re a girl who’s very scared and confused.”
“Yeah!” Catherine beamed. “You’re just as much of a victim in this too!”
“I-I…thank you.” I stuttered as I could feel myself tearing up again. “I feel so…weak in this body. I used to be the strongest person in the world, but now I almost feel like I’m starting from scratch again.”
“Catherine and I will be there to help you in whatever way we can.” Lene assured.
I gave a small nod and a thumbs up, which Lene responds to with a cheery smile as she lets go of my shoulder.
”soooooo, now what?” Catherine airs out after a small silence.
“Well I think I’ll need to write down everything I can remember of the story of Revolution, the name of the book that is the source of all my information that I knew of in this world before coming here.” I get up and look around my desk for something to write down on. It seems like Claire kept a diary with her, which is a convenient tool for me to be able to write down my plans. “I can write down everything and this, as well as my plans for having to deal with the future.”
“Just to clarify, what is the story of Revolution about?” Lene queried.
“Ah yes, I should explain that.” We got distracted by the reveal that I was gay that I forgot to mention why I only sorta know Claire’s life.
“It’s a story similar to HikaYuu where a commoner protagonist enrolls into the Royal Academy and is targeted by a villainess’s bullying. The protagonist of the story is Rae Taylor, and the villainess is Claire Francois.”
The two girls blanched after I revealed that the villainess of Revolution was Claire, no doubt because they both knew what I was about to say next.
“Depending on what the reader does, Claire is either exiled for life or killed in some manner, including execution.”
“De-depending on what the reader does..?” Catherine was unsurprisingly quivering after hearing Claire’s cruel fate.
“Some books in Japan let the reader make decisions occasionally on where the story heads to next, which can change the ending of the story.” While I haven’t been exactly lying to them, this was the most truthful thing I have said to them all night, given the existence of choose your own adventure books.
“The major appeal of Revolution is that the protagonist gets the opportunity to choose to date any of the three male characters in the story, those characters being the three Bauer princes.”
“Eeeeeehhhh?!” Catherine was audibly shocked by this information. I don’t blame her, it’s basically unheard of for a commoner to marry royalty.
“Yes, and in order to avoid getting myself a tragic fate in Claire’s shoes, I would like to befriend both Rae and the three princes as soon as I can.” I explained a part of my plan to survive my new reality. “However, it appears on day one I have…overachieved on befriending the commoner.”
“Oh?” Catherine leaned in, very curious about what I could mean by overachieving.
I let out a sigh before I continued, remembering the ridiculousness from this morning. “The first thing that happened to me when I woke up in this new body was Rae Taylor calling out to me and giving me a love confession.”
“Oh good spirits!” Lene exclaimed.
Meanwhile Catherine was giving me a mischievous look. “Wowie wow, look at that. You already achieved one of your goals and you didn’t even need to do anything.”
“I don’t know about that, while it is good that she is being friendly with me, I would prefer to just be friends.”
“Did you tell her as much?”
“I turned her down and she said that she was expecting that and that she would be fine as long as she was hanging around with me, lover or not.”
“Hmmm.” Catherine began to ponder. “What an odd girl.”
“Was she ever like this at all in Revolution?” Lene posed.
“No, she was never this forward with anyone, much less gay with anyone in the story either.”
“Hmmm.” Now Lene began to ponder something.
“I suppose it’ll just be a part of my life now.” I resigned. “It’s true that she is on good terms with me, so I suppose that this is all satisfactory for now.”
Besides, I have a feeling that if I hang around with Rae, the three princes will also begin to hang around with us. I’m sure even this Rae has that protag luck.
“Hey so…” Catherine queried. “Can we call you Yumiella in private? Obviously publicly we would have to call you Claire, but I was wondering if you would feel better if we called you by your real name.”
“Oh yes, that is an excellent idea, Miss Catherine. She is a different person from Claire after all.” Lene was in support of this idea.
Personally I was so stunned by their thoughtfulness that I clamped up. I really wasn’t expecting these two to be so supportive of me. I’ve never met anyone like this who was so immediately nice to me. I suppose it’s because the stigma for my black hair doesn’t exist here, but everyone I’ve ever met as Yumiella was on guard when I first met them, even if they eventually warmed up to me.
“I…I” I stampered, not really expecting this kindness. “I…would like…that. Yes.”
The two girls looked at each other and began to giggle to themselves at my sudden timidness.
…
I’m really glad to have them in my life.
-!-
We realized that it was getting late, so Lene returned to her quarters while I sat at my desk, writing down both plans for what to do and also a timeline for the story of Revolution.
“You’re still writing in that thing?” Catherine yawned out.
“It’s a matter of life or death.” I flatly countered.
“Don’t be so grim. Nothing bad will happen as long as me and Lene have something to say about it.”
“I…suppose that was a bit dark. My apologies, Catherine”
“Eheh, you’re fine you’re fine. But you really should get some rest, it’s only day one and you said that the first big event is that exam that’s a week out from now.”
I took a moment to relax myself and I realized that my eyes were indeed feeling quite heavy. “You’re right, I already have my plans for the first few weeks of classes anyways so I suppose I should get some rest. I can’t be vigilant if I’m sleep deprived”
I was still in my school uniform when I got out of my chair. Thankfully Lene was able to teach me how to uncurl my hair drills before she left, so that won’t be a problem. However, she told me that I will have to meet with her in the morning to have her curl my hair back again. Having to do this every morning sounds like a pain that I would normally say is not at all worth the effort, but it’s meant to emulate her deceased mother’s hairstyle in honor of her, so I can understand why she keeps it up.
“So what’s your near future plan looking like so far?” Catherine prodded curiously after I changed into my nightwear.
“Well the first step is to maintain a good relationship with Rae.” I explained as I settled into my bed. “I believe if I do that, then my relationships with other key figures like the princes will be in good shape for me as well.”
“She really is an odd girl from what you’ve told me about her.”
“Yeah, I can maybe explain her friendliness as possibly being someone she always was, so it would just be something that would naturally come out when dealing with the setting of her story in real life instead of a book. But I can’t possibly explain her specifically being gay for me.”
“Do you think that she’s like you?” Catherine suggested
Oh, I’ve never considered a second person being a reincarnate, but I suppose there’s no reason why it can’t be possible. However…
“Maybe, but I don’t want to jump the shark like that. It’s easily possible that there’s a much more reasonable explanation and trying to question her on if she’s from another world might just carelessly expose my secret.”
“Jump the shark?” Catherine repeated the saying, confused on what it could mean.
Oh, I guess they don’t have sharks around here.
“It just means to start something too hastily.” I explained
“But what’s a shark?”
“It’s a predator fish that lives in the ocean.”
“Oh, I don’t really know much about the ocean. I don’t go outside very often, especially given my condition”
Right, her missing leg. I don’t know how she lost her leg, but it’s not something I’m gonna pry her about.
“I’m sure we can fix that.” I suggested earnestly. “I’m also someone who’s not huge on social interaction, but going outside will still be good for you.”
“I…suppose.” Catherine mumbled, clearly still not wholly convinced.
Ah well, we can table this discussion for another time.
“Anywho,” I backtracked to our discussion of our plans. “The second step of my plan is to try to get stronger. I know that Claire is already a strong woman with her fire magic, but it’s not to my liking yet.”
“Such high standards,” Catherine teasingly scoffed.
“I can’t help it.” I chuckled and flashed a dry smile. “I achieved the pinnacle of power when I was about 10, so I almost spent half my life being the strongest being in the world. Most likely longer since I doubt anyone else was close to my level once I was in the back half of my grinding.”
“And you got that monstrously strong at such a young age…for fun?” She chuckled a bit, probably at the absurdity of my actions for such a small reason.
“Yeah, and now I’m trying to get back to that level for different reasons. This time it’s only in part for selfish reasons.” I resolved
“Ooooh?” Catherine suddenly got much more interested. “What’s the other, non selfish reasons?”
“Oh…well,” I felt myself get a bit bashful, involuntarily looking a bit to the wall to my right. “You and Lene…you are…good friends of mine. So I want to make sure nothing bad happens to either of you”
“Aw, thank you.” I can practically hear Catherine’s smile from here. “Be sure to tell Lene that too.”
“..sure” I squeaked out, still feeling a little flustered.
“How are you going about that anyways? Didn’t you say that this world doesn’t have levels?”
“Yes, this world does not have levels, but there are still methods I can use here to get stronger. I was trained on sword play for a good few years in my past life, but that body was much more built for that than Claire’s is right now. I’ll need to train my body so that it can keep up with my sword techniques from back then.”
I stopped my explanation for a bit and took in a breath before I said this next sentence because I had a feeling that even Catherine would not like what my next step was.
“I also need to research if dark magic exists in this world and if it’s possible for me to obtain. My fire magic in this world is good but I still would much prefer having access to something I’m more comfortable with like dark magic.”
“Yumiella…” Catherine was clearly concerned for me, not that I blamed her. The stigma of dark magic probably exists in basically any magical world. However, it’s been my reliable friend for 15 years and I would like to find a way to reobtain that power if possible.
“...maybe the Francois manor here will have something to answer your question.” Catherine resigned with a sigh. I think she knows me enough by now that I won’t give up on trying to find a solution. “I’m aware that your father, Mr. Dole has a secret library, so maybe it contains some books that are unsavory to have in the public.”
Right. My father in this world was one of the most influential nobles in all of Bauer, most likely second only to royalty, so his library would most likely have a very large net of topics. I have my own…unsavory reservations about the man based on my knowledge of Revolution. However, I don’t want to open up that can of worms right now.
“Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.” I concluded. “Good night, Catherine.”
“Good night, Yumiella.” Catherine said with a yawn.
I laid my head down on my pillow and after having to deal with a whirlwind of a day, I could finally get some good sleep in.